Stan Smith

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This article is about the tennis player. For the animated character, see Stan Smith (American Dad!)

**Stan Smith**
Personal information
Date of birth	December 14, 1946
Country	United States
Career information
Highest ranking	No. 1
Major wins (3)
Wimbledon	1972
U.S. Open	1969

Stan Smith (born December 14, 1946 in Pasadena, California) is an American tennis player who, with his partner Bob Lutz, was one of the best doubles players of all time. Together they won many major titles all over the world. Smith was also an excellent singles player who won many titles including the Wimbledon championship once and the United States Open championship once. In 1972 he was the World No. 1 player for the year.

Smith played collegiate tennis at the University of Southern California, where he was a three-time All-American and won the 1968 NCAA singles championship and the 1967 and 1968 doubles titles.

Following his playing career, Smith became active as a coach for the United States Tennis Association.

Today Stan Smith lives on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, with his wife and 4 children, all of whom went on to compete in collegiate tennis.

In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, ranks Smith as one of the 21 best players of all time.<ref> Kramer considered the best player ever to have been either Don Budge (for consistent play) or Ellsworth Vines (at the height of his game). The next four best were, chronologically, Bill Tilden, Fred Perry, Bobby Riggs, and Pancho Gonzales. After these six came the "second echelon" of Rod Laver, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Gottfried von Cramm, Ted Schroeder, Jack Crawford, Pancho Segura, Frank Sedgman, Tony Trabert, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Björn Borg, and Jimmy Connors. He felt unable to rank Henri Cochet and René Lacoste accurately but felt they were among the very best.</ref>

In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put him in 35th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.

Smith was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1987. He still plays in exhibition matches and was recently noted by an observer to "still have it."

1 Grand Slam singles finals
- 1.1 Wins (2)
- 1.2 Runner-ups (1)
2 Singles Titles (35)
3 Doubles Titles (54)
4 External links

[edit] Grand Slam singles finals

[edit] Wins (2)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1971	U.S. Open	Image:Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg Jan Kodes	3-6 6-3 6-2 7-6
1972	Wimbledon	Ilie Năstase	4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5

[edit] Runner-ups (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1971	Wimbledon	Image:Flag of Australia.svg John Newcombe	3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 4-6, 4-6

[edit] Singles Titles (35)

1970 - Phoenix, Stockholm, Masters
1971 - Paris, Queen's, Cincinnati, US Open (Grass)
1972 - Salisbury, New York, Hampton, Washington, Wimbledon, Sacramento, L.A. WCT, Paris Indoor, Stockholm
1973 - Atlanta WCT, St. Louis WCT, Munich WCT, Brussels WCT, Gothenburg WCT, Dallas WCT, Bastad, Philadelphia WCT
1974 - Hempstead WCT, St. Louis, Nottingham, Chicago
1975 - Sydney Indoor
1977 - Los Angeles (Pacific Southwest)
1978 - Atlanta, Vienna
1979 - Cleveland, Vienna
1980 - Frankfurt